Portland clinic chain ZoomCare will offer free medical care at one location, one night per month

A local clinic chain will offer free appointments at one location, one night per month starting this Thursday.

On the second Thursday of every month, free clinic appointments will be offered from 6p.m. to 9p.m. at ZoomCare's Mississippi Ave. clinic at 3872 N. Mississippi Avenue in Portland, Oregon. ZoomCare providers and staff, some of them volunteering, will provide care.

Unlike many doctors and hospitals, ZoomCare doesn’t participate in less-profitable safety net programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Instead, the chain has focused on people with cash or commercial insurance -- which some state lawmakers have criticized as cherry-picking.

This week, partly in response to those concerns, ZoomCare announced it has set up a nonprofit to offer free medical care in conjunction with the Coalition of Community Health Clinics. Normally, the clinic charges a flat rate for appointments.

The company recently announced it is opening five new locations, bringing the total to 15, including one in Seattle. The new locations are in Multnomah Village, downtown Portland, East Burnside, Salem and Vancouver.

David Sanders and Albert DiPiero, the doctors and former college roommates who founded ZoomCare, are not new to not-for-profit endeavors. In 2004, they tried unsuccessfully to put a measure on the ballot to reform Oregon's health care system and make it more affordable.

A spokesman said “ZoomCare Free Nights” is an experiment, but one that they hope to expand to other locations. People who show up will be scheduled for appointments that evening. They do not have to meet income requirements.